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Warm Up to a better performance.

Have you ever started a run and felt sluggish, heavy and thinking “I don’t think I can do this today”? But you stick with the run and things progress, eventually you start feeling a little more confident. Your legs loosen up and you start to gain speed slowly without too much extra effort. Then you enter the specific stage (speed, tempo, stamina workout) of your training run and things are just not happening. If you have felt all this you are not alone. Most of us roll out of bed in the morning or get back home from work and head out the door to “get this run over with” without much preparation. We skip the Warm Up part of our workout.

Well, I’m here to tell you that if you skip the Warm Up you are cheating yourself of your best performance. Don’t fool yourself by saying “I’m not a fast runner or an elite”. It doesn’t matter if you are a 17 minute 5K athlete or a 30 minute one. You may have noticed the “fast kids” warming up before a race and you think “Well their coach tells them they have to”. Yes, and they also run sub 20 minute 5Ks.

A proper Warm Up gets your body and mind ready of what is about to take place. It can be broken down in three parts.

1. Mobility

So what do you need to do for a proper Warm Up? Here are some things I do before every run. First I do some hip-openers, chest-openers, squats, leg swings and lunges about 2-4 sets. These exercises open up my chest so my lungs fill up with more air during my run. Loosen up my hips and joints so they don’t stiffen my run. Mobility workouts, here Matt Fitzgerald describes a few of the workouts you could do before your runs.

2. Energy Delivery system

Right after that I head out the door for an easy mile or two. That gets the heart pumping and Oxygen-rich blood flowing to the working muscles. Warming up the muscles and tendons gets them ready for the hard work to come and will prevent injury. Next, is time for a few running form drills. These will “wake up” the nervous system which is an important part of the Warm-Up. They are great co-ordination exercises. Jason Fitzgerald demonstrates the basic Running Drills in a short video. You’d want to do these on key-workout days and not before Easy or Long runs.

3. Practice race/training pace

After the energy delivery system is set up and the muscles warmed is time for a few Strides. I only do those before a race or a speed workout. I run the pace that I will race or train for 20-25 seconds to see what it “feels” like for that day. And I only do 3-4 repeats. You’d want to do this right before the race (2-3 min before the start) or the start of your workout and not every time you run.

Once you incorporate this Warm-Up routine into your training it will become part of it and it will feel natural. Not only your performance will improve but your running Form will too.

Too soon, Too many, Too fast.

Mostly a beginner’s offense to the basic rules of running. Also seasoned runners coming from a running break or a race commit the offense of increasing their mileage Too Soon. Ignoring the “build a base” rule of training can quickly lead to injuries. Adding Too Many miles to their weekly totals and not observing the 10-20% increase per cycle also spells trouble. Coming back to training feeling rested and eager to run and piling up excess miles could sideline the runner. Also following the three cycle increase in mileage and the fourth cycle running less is the proper way to longer happier miles. And just because a runner can run Too Fast, he/she shouldn’t. Most of our running during training should be easy. As the matter of fact about 80% of the time spent running should be slow! The other 20% is a mix of controlled faster running workouts. Save it for race day! So here you have it: “the terrible toos”. Add any of these Toos to your running and you’ll be experiencing the terrible Shin Splints, Runner’s Knee, ITB Syndrome etc.

Okay I know the title grabbed your curiosity but this question comes up often in many runners heads while doing long distance races. I have witnessed more than once, especially during Ultras, runners shorts been soaked with pee. Gross, I know but is a fact that some runners rather sacrifice a pair of shorts than seconds off the clock. It happens to a lot of us, that sudden urge to pee especially when we are out for a long time. During training runs is not a real issue but in a race it can be. Port-a-potties aplenty on the course but who has time for that, right? There is actually a scientific explanation for this urge and is called: stress incontinence

stress in·con·ti·nence

noun

a condition (found chiefly in women) in which there is involuntary emission of urine when pressure within the abdomen increases suddenly, as in coughing or jumping.

If you have ever experienced this condition you may want to read this: peeing on the run . Now as far as the other nature call while running, well you guys are your own…..I’m not even going there.

Yesterday the training schedule called for Cruise Intervals. At 60°F the temperature was great but the 95% Humidity was a killer.
A couple of miles in the run my Garmin buzzed “run for 2000 meters” and I started pushing the effort to about 8:30 m/m pace which is my slower side of the Cruise Interval range (8:30m/m – 8:05m/m). It was almost a struggle to keep the pace for the duration. I did not carry water on this run because it was a 3 mile loop and I had the chance to grab a sip of water from my bottle every time I ran by my car. This was also a new route for me with a lot of uneven pavement which made things a little more challenging since I mostly running on flat roads.

When I finally finished my work out walked to my car to get the last out of my water bottle I realized how much I had been sweating during the run. My shirt was a darker color from wicking sweat and my legs were covered with sweat droplets. During the Winter we don’t think much about hydration and Electrolytes because…well is Winter. On my ride back home I was thinking to myself if I had made this workout harder than it should be by not hydrating properly before and not taking electrolytes.

Tomorrow’s workout is a Steady State Run. Weather predictions are very similar so it will be Hydration and Electrolytes and see what difference will it make!

It has been a long time but I still remember the day that I came home through the garage door into the laundry room kicked my shoes off and shouted “Honey, I just ran one mile!!! Did not stop once, it felt hard but now it feels amazing”. Still on-the-high of that morning’s run I started searching for a 5K race in our city that was two – three months away to allow for proper training.

I found one! I signed up and got the T-shirt to prove it! After 12 weeks of training I lined up at the start line. This was an inaugural race and a very small one. Only 187 runners participated. Among them my oldest son, my daughter, my nephew and his girlfriend. They had all been inspired by my excitement about running and had signed up and trained for the race.

Race Day

It was the first Saturday of June and in the Southeastern United States it can be pretty hot and humid and It Was! I remember it was 82 degrees and about 100% humidity it was the kind of weather you want to be by the pool or at the beach not running on asphalt.

The horn went off and the race clock started ticking. Runners and walkers alike took off on a grassy area that circled a pond and you could feel the heat rising from the ground. About half a mile in the race we had cleared the pond and the grass and now we were running on asphalt. At this point I was feeling great. I was passing runners left and right, literally.

Rookie mistake

A mile in the race and I started feeling out of breath. I had started the race too fast for my abilities. When that happens you are using precious energy all too fast and guess what? You don’t have enough to finish the race. By the time I reached the water/aid station (mile 1.5) I was walking. Grabbed a cup water thanked the volunteers and took off running again having recovered some after walking. It did not last very long and I was walking again. That went on till we turned the last corner and I could see the Finish line. People, family and friends were standing by and were cheering on the runners as they were turning in for the final 250 yards of the race.

The Finish Line

Out of nowhere my energy came back. Felt strong almost as strong as I felt at the beginning of the race. In front of me was a guy about my age and my competitive-spirit whispered to me as it didn’t want him to hear “you’ve got to pass this dude” and I tried, I gave it all and as soon as I got next to him the dude started speeding up. With 25 yards left we were both at all-out speed and he got in front of me right at the Finish. I didn’t care. I just ran a 5K, I finished a Race. I was a winner! I had ran (and walked) it at 32’40”. The short race came to the end quickly and they announced through the loud speaker that it was time for the awards.

I got hooked

They were doing what is called three deep Age Group Awards and Overalls. The overalls are 1st 2nd and 3rd Overall Male and Female and the Age Group is normally in 5 year increment groups for male and female separate. They started with the overall winners and then moved to the Age Groups. When they got to mine the first guy in my A.G. had also placed in the Overall category so he was skipped which means it gave my group’s 4th guy a placement in the 3rd place and an award. They started to announce 1st place then 2nd place and 3rd place. Nope, none of these names matched mine but honestly did not expect it. But wait….the 3rd place guy is walking up to get his award and picture with our Age Group….that’s the dude. The guy that beat me at the Finish Line. His time 32′.38″ he got me by 2″.

On the drive back home all these thoughts were running through my head….What if I had walked 5 steps less….What if I didn’t stop for water….What if I hadn’t started as fast? I would be going home with an award today. I was so close! That did not really bother me but it light a fire in me. Later the same day I started looking for my next 5K race. I was hooked!

This is how it all got started. A few years fast forward, I crossed the finish line at the Bad Marsh 50K Trail Ultra-marathon (that is 31.07 miles). By that time I had run several races mostly 5Ks, a couple of 10Ks and a couple of Half Marathons.